September 30, 1909 117 



Till-: RKARD-TONGUE 

 By A. A. Heller 



Pentstemon Davidsonii Greene, Pittonia 'i: 241. 1892. 



and 

 PENTSTEMON c.Kniculatus Greene, Pittonia 3: 310. 1898. 



Rarely is one so fortunate as to encounter two very distinct 

 species of Pentstemon growing side by side, but such was the 

 experience of Dr. Kennedy and myself on a recent trip to Mt. 

 Rose, the highest peak in western Nevada, with an elevation of 

 10800 feet. 



The larger flowered plant on the left is P. Davidsonii, with 

 beautiful large lilac-purple flowers an inch or more in length 

 clustered in few flowered heads. This species is common on 

 Mt. Rose, ranging from 9500 feet in the gravelly and sandy 

 granite of the forests of alpine white pine, to the very summit 

 of the mountain in the shale and slate far above timber line, 

 chiefly on northerly slopes, occurring in clumps of few individ- 

 uals near the summit, but at the lower elevations often forming 

 mats a foot or more in extent. 



As described by Greene, it is "a low semiherbaeeous creep- 

 ing undershrub, the proper stem subterranean mainly and hori- 

 zontal, rooting at the joints." And, as he furthermore remarks, 

 "it is a very beautiful alpine dwarf, the flowers usually exceed- 

 ing in size all the rest of the plant that is above ground." The 

 type was collected on Mt. Conness near Mono Lake, California, 

 "at an altitude of 12,300 feet, 15 Aug., 1890, by Mr. George 

 Davidson." Other and more southern stations in California are 

 "high mountains at the head of King's River," and "at 10,000 

 feet in Tuolumne Count)," reported by Mrs. Brandegee in Zoe 

 4: 97. I can find no other records concerning the occurrence 

 of this species in California or Nevada, but it should be found 

 on other peaks about Lake Tahoe which have an elevation of 

 9000 feet and more. Piper, in Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 11: 499, 

 reports it from four localities in Washington, namely, Olympic 

 mountains, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and from Loom is. I have 

 not seen any of the specimens he cites. 



